Reply To: Herpes Testing Confusion

[Terri Warren]

The 2.6 is in the low positive range. Half of the positives in this range (1.1 to 3.5) are false positives, so that means that half are real positives, so yes, people with long term infection can have a true low positive index value. You could get another ELISA if you want to. If your western blot is negative (which would reflect the past, not the current situation), then I think it is extremely unlikely that any further test would be positive from this very brief encounter. again, I do not believe that the situation you described presents a significant risk.

Terri